


it was enchanting to meet you

by Lady_Slytherin



Category: Lovely Little Losers
Genre: Coffee Shop, F/F, First Meeting, Fluffy, Open Mics, Witch AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6089793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Slytherin/pseuds/Lady_Slytherin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><strong> Lovely Little Femslash Day Two: Witch AU </strong><br/>Paige keeps seeing the same girl at her open mics, but can never conjure up the nerve to speak to her. If only she could be sure the girl would speak back…</p>
            </blockquote>





	it was enchanting to meet you

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from the Taylor Swift song "Enchanted." Thanks @megwinter for betaing.

The girl was here again.

She was always here on open mic nights, sitting by herself on the side of the coffeeshop and avidly watching the performances. Every time Paige performed with her there, it made her feel like the girl was seeing something special in her. But she had no idea who she was.

Paige finished her song and returned to her seat, trying not to stare too pointedly at the girl, who had mid-length brown hair and wide eyes, as though the world was full of excitement and she didn’t want to miss a second of it.

“Nice job,” Jaquie said as she sat back down. She passed half a cookie across the table to her. Splitting food was part of their regular open mic routine. “I liked that song.”

“Thanks. Hey, do you know show that girl is?” Paige asked, trying to be subtle as she pointed across Boyet’s. “She’s been at the last three open mics.”

Jaquie wasn’t subtle at all when she craned her head to look. She turned back to Paige and shrugged. “I have no idea. She’s cute, though.”

“Yeah, she is,” Paige said. Just at that moment, the girl turned to look at her. She looked away and pretended to be very interested in the person who was tuning up on the makeshift stage.

“Well?” Jaquie asked. “Aren’t you going to go and talk to her?”

Paige didn’t look away from the stage. “I don’t want to bother her,” she said finally. “What if she doesn’t want to talk to me? Right now I can just think of her as this really nice person who smiles at me when I sing. What if I talk to her and she’s awful?”

“Then you’ll come back here and I’ll buy you one of those rice milk chai things you like,” Jaquie said. “Come on, what do you have to lose?”

Paige didn’t answer. She didn’t really have anything to lose, except that as the time since she’d last been on a date went on, her confidence got lower and lower. _Come on, just go for it,_ she urged herself, but when she looked up again the girl was walking out of the door, smiling at the barista as she left.

“I guess it’s too late now.”

Jaquie took a sip of her coffee and shrugged. “You said she keeps showing up at these things, just talk to her next time.”

Paige looked down at her songwriting notebook. “I don’t know how I’m going to work up the nerve to talk to her.”

The person onstage stopped tuning up and started to play the guitar and sing. Paige and Jaquie leaned closer together so they could hear each other. 

“It’s too bad you can’t cast a spell on yourself for confidence,” Jaquie said, lowering her voice on the word ‘spell.’

“Spells don’t work on witches,” Paige replied automatically. Normally she didn’t like to talk through other people’s performances, but in this case she’d make an exception. If nothing else, the sound of music might drown out what they were saying. Most people were fairly ambivalent about witches, but it still wasn’t something she wanted to advertise. It was worth it not to have to deal with the occasional bigot.

Jaquie rolled her eyes. “I know, that’s where the ‘too bad’ part comes in.”

“Right.” Paige thought this over. “You know, I can’t cast a spell on myself, but I _could_ cast one on her.” 

“Paige, you are not suggesting violating someone’s boundaries that way,” Jaquie said, giving her a very pointed look. “I know you’re not doing that because you’re not stupid and you know how fucked up that is.”

“That’s not the kind of spell I’m thinking about. I wouldn’t make her feel anything,” Paige said. The current performer couldn’t seem to carry a tune. It hurt her ears just to listen.

Jaquie looked at her skeptically. “Then what are you thinking of doing?”

Paige leaned in even further. “I just read about a spell that can make someone more comfortable with you.”

“Yeah, roofies do that too and I wouldn’t recommend those either,” Jaquie said. 

Paige shook her head. “I’m saying this all wrong. The spell would make it so that she she’ll want to get to know me, but it won’t make her feel any positive emotions towards me. She’ll just be curious, that’s all. She could still end up hating me if that’s how she feels. It would just—give her a little push.”

Jaquie considered this. “Well, I don’t know if that’s technically impaired consent, but I also don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Paige asked desperately. “If I knew she wasn’t going to brush me off, I’d be able to talk to her, and then we could see if we were compatible without the pressure.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to know that she actually wants to talk to you?”

“Not if I’m never brave enough to make a move,” Paige said. She looked at the door the girl had walked out of, as though she would still see her there, but of course she couldn’t. 

Jaquie put a hand on her arm. “If you really want to do this, I’ll help. Just be careful, all right?”

“I always am,” Paige said.

The person on stage finished their set and returned to their seat. The silence left behind rang in Paige’s ears, sounding even worse than the person’s singing had.

*

Paige stood to the side of the stage with Jaquie, preparing for her performance. For some reason, she couldn’t get her ukulele to tune properly. Her fingers moved on the tuning pegs clumsily when they should have been steady. She wanted to give up, but couldn’t risk being out of tune, not today. Everything had to be just right, if the charm was going to work. Doing it in front of everyone like this was might be a stupid choice, but Paige had always performed her best spells through music, and it wasn’t as though she could go up the girl and just serenade her.

“Next up is Paige Moth,” the host announced. Paige barely managed to hide her flinch.

“Good luck,” Jaquie said. “Not too late to turn back and play something else.”

Paige shoved her lightly. “Yeah, it is,” she said lightly, before walking onto the stage with a confidence she didn’t have.

As usual, she experienced a brief moment of panic before she started playing. Then the first line came into her head, and Paige entered the space she always ended up in when she sang, the words flowing out with her as a completely different sort of magic than she usually performed.

She finished to loud applause, returned to her seat. The girl was looking at her, but didn’t make any move to come close. That was okay. Paige could wait.

Time dragged on, and by the time the last performer had left the stage the girl still hadn’t come over to talk to her. 

Paige turned to Jaquie, who shrugged. “Maybe it didn’t work.”

“That can’t be it,” Paige said, frowning. “None of my spells have failed before.” 

“Okay,” Jaquie said. “So why isn’t she talking to you?”

“I don’t know,” Paige said. She steeled herself. _Only one option now._ “I’m going to talk to her. Maybe she’s really shy and the spell worked but didn’t make her brave enough to talk to me.”

Jaquie looked unconvinced. “You know, you could have just talked to her last week without all this drama.”

Paige ignored this. She got up from her chair, doing the breathing exercises she sometimes did before a performance to calm her nerves. The spell had to have worked, and that meant that no matter what else happened, the girl would be glad to see her. This knowledge gave her the confidence she needed to cross the room and approach her.

She stood next to the girl’s table and looked down. “Hi,” she said. “I always see you at these things so I thought I should introduce myself.”

The girl smiled. “Hi! My name’s Chelsey.”

“I’m Paige.” She held out her hand. Chelsey shook it.

“I know. I’ve seen you play a bunch of times. You’re really good!”

“Thank you,” Paige said. Damn it. The whole point of the spell was to make herself feel less self-conscious, but her mind was completely devoid of anything interesting to say.

“Do you want to get a cup of coffee?” Chelsey asked, gesturing over at the bar.

“Right now?” Paige asked.

“Yeah. Boyet’s is really good, we might as well get some while we’re here. Besides, I’d love to get to know you!”

Paige felt like the shittiest person in the world. “Sure,” she said, forcing herself to smile. She’d gotten what she wanted, hadn’t she? “What do you want? I’ll pay.”

They stood in line together to order their drinks. Chelsey kept giving her these sweet, bubbly smiles as though she were having the time of her life. “Do you have any cats?” she asked as they waited for the barista to finish with their coffees.

“Two of them,” Paige said.

Chelsey grinned. “Me too! Actually just one, but I’m hoping to get another soon so he’ll have someone to play with.”

Paige found herself smiling back. “That’s sweet.”

“What are yours named?”

“Orpheus and Eurydice.”

Chelsey lit up even more, if that was possible. “You like theater?”

“Yeah, I do. I especially like plays and opera, I think it’s interesting to explore how music can be used to tell a story.”

“Are you auditioning for Faustus? There’s been signs for it here in Boyet’s, I don’t know if you’ve seen them.”

The signs had been up for weeks but aside from Jaquie, who was friends with the director, Paige had never heard anyone mention them. “Actually, a friend and I are auditioning together.”

“Me too! It’d be cool if we were in it together!”

“Yeah,” Paige said, taking her coffee and smiling at the barista. “It would be.”

They sat together at a small table on the side of the room. Chelsey continued to talk excitedly about everything under the sun: the things she was studying, her budding interest in film and photography, and her cat, who she adored. Paige soon realized that underneath the bubbly surface was one of the sturdiest people she’d ever met.

“What made you decide to start singing at open mics?” Chelsey asked. 

Paige shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve always loved music. I guess I just wanted to be able to share that,” she said.

Chelsey nodded. “The things you love are better when you can share them with other people,” she said.

“Absolutely.”

They talked for a little while longer. The more she got to know Chelsey, the more awful Paige felt for how this whole thing had started. If only she could turn back time and do it differently—but of course, that was ridiculous. Spells that affective chronology were highly regulated and she’d never be able to get permission to use one for something so mundane, even if she was actually powerful enough to pull it off.

Chelsey put a hand on hers. “What are you thinking about? You look distracted.”

“Sorry, I just spaced out. Were you trying to ask me something?” Paige asked.

“I just wanted to know whether you wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow night.” Chelsey said. “You could meet my cat.”

Paige looked away. She wanted to say yes more than anything, but not like this. She had to come clean. Jaquie would buy her a rice milk chai when it all fell apart, and next time she liked a girl she’d handle it better. “You’re only asking me because I did something stupid.”

Chelsey squeezed her hand. “What did you do?”

Paige closed her eyes. “I’m—I’m a witch. And I cast a spell on you so you’d want to talk to me.” Chelsey would hate her for this. Maybe she’d walk away now and Paige wouldn’t have to watch her go.

Chelsey fell into fits of giggles. Paige opened her eyes, heart sinking. Chelsey thought she was joking. She probably didn’t even believe in witches, Paige realized. Not everyone did. “It’s true,” she said, lifting her sleeve to show the mark that was mostly obscured by her tattoo. “I know it sounds like a lie, but I really did cast a spell on you.”

“That’s impossible,” Chelsey said through her laughter. “You can’t cast a spell on another witch.” 

Paige opened her mouth, but no words came out. 

Chelsey lifted her sleeve. “See?”

“But— if my spell didn’t work, why did you ask me out?” Paige asked. “Wait, _were_ you even asking me out? You said dinner, and I just assumed—”

“Of course I was asking you out,” Chelsey said, looking at her with wide eyes. “I asked because I like you. I kept hoping you’d talk to me after one of your open mics. That’s why I showed up to so many.”

This was too good to be true. Paige _knew_ that it was too god to be true, but she couldn’t stop her face from breaking out into a smile. “So I could have just talked to you weeks ago and saved us both the trouble?”

“Yeah, you could have,” Chelsey said.

_Jaquie was right._ It would have been better to do this whole thing genuinely, without any magical influence. Paige experienced a sudden wave of relief that the charm hadn’t worked. Chelsey had liked her without it, and that felt better than any successful spell ever could. “Can I kiss you?” she asked. The decision wasn’t just hers. She wasn’t going to make that sort of mistake again.

Chelsey smiled. “Yes.”

Paige got up from her seat and moved over to Chelsey’s side to pull her to her feet. She paused for a moment just to stare at the beautiful girl in front of her. Chelsey indulged this for a minute, then, seeming to grow impatient, leaned in and kissed Paige first.


End file.
